Shadow of Guilt Read Online Free PDF Page A

You’ve got to help me find her.”
    “How?” I said.
    “Call these people in Massachusetts again.”
    “But, Chuck dear, they don’t know.” Connie put her hand on his arm. “No, Chuck, there’s nothing we can do at the moment. Look, dear, you’d better just go home and wait. I wouldn’t tell your father or Vivien, though. We don’t want them worried unless we can’t help it.”
    “God, no.”
    “Just say Ala has a cold or something. Then when she comes, we’ll call.”
    “But, Connie—please let me stay.”
    “Dear, it isn’t likely she’ll be back tonight, is it? In any case, it’s better for me—for George and me to be alone when she does come, so we can get it all straightened out.”
    “Then—then if you don’t call, I’ll be around first thing in the morning.”
    “Yes, dear.” Connie kissed him. “Try not to worry too much. I’m sure it’s all going to be all right.”
    When I awoke next morning, Connie’s bed was empty. It was just after nine. I shaved, showered and dressed and went downstairs. Neither Mary nor the cook, Connie’s doddering old Corliss retainers, worked Sundays. I found my wife in the dining room, sitting with a cup of coffee.
    Without looking up at me, she said, “You’ve only got about an hour if you’re to be at Idlewild by eleven.”
    I’d forgotten all about the Brazilian tycoon. “I’ll call Lew and get him to send Bob Driscoll.”
    “Lew specially wants you to do it, doesn’t he?”
    “Yes, but—”
    “Then go. What good can you do hanging around here? How would you get out of it, anyway? Call Lew and tell him you’ve been encouraging Ala to take off for the weekend with a… a…?” She put her cup down on its saucer. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to go on like this. I… just go. That’s all. Go to Idlewild. If you want coffee, there’s some in the kitchen. You can get me some more, too.”
    She held out her cup. I took it and went out with it into the hall. As I started toward the kitchen, I heard a key in the lock of the front door behind me. Ala came in, carrying a little suitcase.
    She looked maddeningly pretty, fresh and springlike as a hyacinth. I could have strangled her.
    “You little fool,” I said. “What in God’s name have you been up to?”
    “But George…”
    “Chuck came back from Chicago. Connie was going to call Rosemary, so I had to tell her everything. About you and Chuck, too. Everything. She called the Greens. They told her you and Don had gone off on your own.”
    Ala remained totally undisturbed. “So she knows. That’s fine. It makes it a lot easier.” She smiled at me. It was a smile of brilliant self-assurance, it was almost smug. “George, dear, you were wonderful. If it hadn’t been for you, I’d never have had the nerve. Now it’s all perfect. It’s just the most incredible, marvelous thing that ever happened. I told Don I wasn’t sure about marrying Chuck, the way you suggested, and right away he let me know how he felt. He loves me. He’s loved me from the first moment he set eyes on me. We’re going to be married. Oh, George, I’m so grateful to you…”
    She threw herself exuberantly against me. Connie’s coffee cup got dislodged from its saucer and fell, smashing against the parquet floor. Immediately Connie came hurrying out of the dining room.
    She stood in the doorway, looking diamond-hard and supercilious. Normally that expression on her face would have quailed Ala, but now, keeping close to me, with her hand on my arm, Ala returned Connie’s gaze with an equally deadly composure.
    She said, “George tells me you know. So there’s nothing to argue about, is there? I’ve talked it all out with George and he understands. I’m not going to marry Chuck. I’m going to marry Don Saxby.”
    I knew I deserved this, but it didn’t make it any easier.
    Connie said, “Where were you and Mr. Saxby after you left the Greens’?”
    Ala gazed straight back at her. “We—we just drove